The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

playstation 3

Owners of Sony’s PlayStation 4 hoping the company would follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and add backwards compatibility to allow PS3 games to be played on the newer console shouldn’t hold their breath, as executives for the electronics company say they have no immediate plans to implement the technology. [More]

Police in Snellville, GA, are trying to recover a pile of recently stolen guns and ammunition, but rather than offer the usual cash reward, cops are offering Sony PlayStation 3 video game consoles. [More]

With the next generation of gaming consoles set to debut during the next two years, rumors abound about whether or not digitally downloaded or cloud-stored games will replace the current disc-based standard. A new Wall Street Journal report claims that, for Sony at least, the day of the disc isn’t done yet. [More]

Access to Amazon Instant Video’s streaming library has been a nice perk to signing up for Amazon Prime. But the service was never particularly useful to many customers who like to sit back on their couch and watch stuff on TV rather than stare at a computer screen. Now Amazon has cut a deal with the PS3 that draws it closer to competitors Netflix and Hulu Plus, which both stream on the Wii and Xbox 360 in addition to Sony’s console. [More]

One of the more attractive features of the PlayStation 3 is that the hardware is designed to allow you to replace the hard drive with inexpensive, high-capacity models that work with laptops. Previously the only reason to upgrade was to get more storage space, but newer solid state disk (SSD) drives reportedly speed up the device. [More]

Devices with internal disc drives that suck and spit out your circular entertainment are fantastic until someone (let’s call her 2-year-old Emma) comes along and renders it (let’s call it a PS3) useless by stuffing it with multiple discs. No matter how much you curse at the device or pound on the eject button, the discs will stay stuck until you either send the console in for repair or work some magic. [More]

DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket To Go is a service for football fans who can’t have or don’t want a satellite dish bolted to the side of their house. It streams Sunday afternoon out-of-market football games to computers, mobile devices, and as of this week, to the Sony Playstation 3. At $340 for the season, it’s not cheap, but football fans love it anyway. The service’s Playstation debut on Sunday didn’t work all that well for most customers, and didn’t work for Edward at all. He called for a refund, which was issued, then canceled. Instead of a refund to his credit card, he and other users will receive a store credit. For $25. To the Playstation Network store. “As if that is somehow comparable!” he fumed to Consumerist. [More]

Sony’s Itchy and Scratchy-esque tangle with an alleged hacker and his supporters has finally reached its apparent end. The parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement with an injunction that bans the man who took credit for jailbreaking the PlayStation 3 from distributing the offending code. [More]

In an episode reportedly linked to Sony’s attempts to take down the alleged hacker who decimated the PS3’s security, a group of hackers reportedly crippled the PlayStation Network and several Sony-related cites. [More]

“Kevin Butler” is the fictional Sony VP who is the face of its recent PlayStation ads, so of course he has a Twitter account. It looks like whoever is running the account hasn’t been reading the news much. When a Twitter user tweeted at him the code used to jailbreak PS3’s, the entity misinterpreted the series of letters and numbers and made a Battleship joke, retweeting the code in the process, reports Engadget. This is ironic because Sony has been cracking down with legal threats and attacks on anyone they can find disseminating the jailbreak information. I wonder if Kevin Butler will be getting one of these C&D’s… [More]

First Sony went after alleged PS3 hackers who broke down the console’s firmware, opening it up to gamers to run pirated, copied and unlicensed games. Now it wants information on those who posted details of the hack online, even though they had no hand in its creation. [More]

Julie’s eyes probably bugged when she spotted the way-too-cheap PS3 deal she captured in the accompanying screenshot. She placed an order and checked out with a $50.02 charge after tax and shipping were added, but received a cancellation email the next day. [More]

Straining to counter Microsoft’s inclusion of ESPN 3 on the Xbox 360, Sony is piling on video streaming apps at a heavy clip, adding pay-as-you-go streaming service Vudu to its stable of Hulu Plus and NHL GameCenter Live. [More]

After restricting Hulu Plus — Hulu’s pay-to-play movie and TV streaming offering — to members of Sony’s paid PlayStation Plus service, Sony has decided to tear down that pay wall and let non-paying PlayStation Network members in on the action. [More]